How much versus who: which social norms information is more effective?

We conduct an experiment to investigate how different types of information about social norms affect individuals' stated contributions to a specific pro-environment program, a student 'green fee', in the context of a referendum. Compared to students that receive no information about p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied economics 2016-01, Vol.48 (5), p.389-401
Main Authors: Meyer, Andrew, Yang, Guanyi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Effectiveness studies
Environmental economics
Environmental protection
Information processing
Norms
pro-environment behaviour
referendum
Social norms
Social psychology
stated preference
Students
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Summary:We conduct an experiment to investigate how different types of information about social norms affect individuals' stated contributions to a specific pro-environment program, a student 'green fee', in the context of a referendum. Compared to students that receive no information about peer contributions, on average, students that receive information about the dollar value range of contributions at peer institutions contribute less while students that learn about the high percentage of students voting 'yes' on green fee programs at peer institutions contribute more. The results are economically significant as the absolute values of both effects represent approximately 25% of average contributions. These results suggest that information about participation rates can be more effective than information about dollar amounts in encouraging contributions to environmental initiatives. Of interest to stated preference researchers, we find that results do not change when controlling for self-selection into survey completion.
ISSN:0003-6846
1466-4283
DOI:10.1080/00036846.2015.1080803